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In a message addressed to the transition government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations Security Council reiterated the urgent need to prepare to conduct peaceful elections and to exercise efficient, transparent and comprehensive control over state finances, ensuring that there is no impunity for those responsible for acts of embezzlement or corruption.

Tension is escalating in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the police and soldiers are intervening to disperse the young demonstrators that took the streets this morning in protest against the extension of the transition and postponement of elections.

At least seven protestors were killed and hundreds more arrested in demonstrations on Thursday in various suburbs Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and in other urban areas.

President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo told diplomats on Tuesday that he had ordered his army to begin disarming, immediately, thousands of foreign rebels in the east of his country.

Thousands of Congolese civilians may have been displaced by recent fighting between UN peacekeeping troops and local militiamen in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN mission's public information officer, Mohammad Abdoul Wahab, said on Tuesday.

Up to 45,000 AU peacekeepers could be needed to disarm an estimated 15,000 Rwanda Hutus based in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a 19-page report issued on Friday by the African Union.

Experts on peace and security from Great Lakes countries and international organisations began meeting in Nairobi on Monday to prepare documents that will constitute the Pact of Security, Stability and Development that heads of state of the region are to sign in November.

The EU special representative to Africa's Great Lakes region, Aldo Ajello, said on Friday the Union might support military action against Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo if they refuse to disarm and return home.

Although 15,000 former militiamen in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern district of Ituri have been disarmed, the UN mission in the country, known as MONUC, says it is concerned over the regrouping and rearming of the fighters, despite intense UN military operations.

Under the scorching afternoon sun in Rutshuru Territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an excited crowd of several hundred people, armed with machetes and knives, mills around the carcasses of two elephants stretched out on the ground.